JP2009088647A - Imaging device and method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a photography device and a photographing method that can capture color close to the actual color. <P>SOLUTION: The photography device comprises: a means for photographing an object; a means for intercepting light in a predetermined wavelength band out of light incident to the photography means; a means for determining whether an object being photographed by the photography means is a predetermined object or not; and a means for controlling interception of light in the predetermined wavelength band by the interception means if the determination is made by the determination means that the object is a predetermined object. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a photographing apparatus and a photographing method, and particularly relates to a photographing apparatus and a photographing method suitable for photographing a subject photographed with a color different from an appearance.

  When shooting flowers and insects with a digital camera, these subjects have a special spectral reflectance near the ultraviolet / infrared wavelength band, so they are photographed in colors different from the colors that are actually visible. It may end up.

  As a technique relating to such color reproduction, Patent Document 1 discloses that an object is extracted, and signal processing parameters of the object portion in the screen are individually controlled in accordance with the extracted output, so that auto white balance adjustment and auto A technique for improving the performance of an automatic function such as focus adjustment and realizing a function for expressing a specific subject, its background, and video by controlling image quality is disclosed.

  Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-228688 discloses that the screen is divided, an input profile (color processing parameter) of an area including the recognized object is appropriately selected, and color conversion is performed for all objects in the image with high accuracy. A color reproduction device capable of reproduction is disclosed.

Further, Patent Document 3 discloses a technique for correcting the color of image data using light source color information at the time of shooting included in image generation history information.
JP-A-5-110936 JP 2003-341499 A No. 2004/034711

  However, in any of the techniques disclosed in any of the patent documents, since the spectrum of the image sensor is not changed, the color correction range is limited, and the image is still photographed in a color different from the color that is actually visible. There was a point.

  In view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a photographing apparatus and a photographing method capable of photographing with colors close to actual colors.

  In order to achieve the above object, the invention of claim 1 shoots a subject, generates image data indicating the subject, and light in a predetermined wavelength band among incident light incident on the photographing unit. A blocking unit for blocking, a determining unit for determining whether or not a subject photographed by the shooting unit is a predetermined subject, and the blocking when the determining unit determines that the subject is the predetermined subject Control means for controlling so as to prohibit the blocking of the light of the predetermined wavelength band by the means.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, the photographing unit photographs a subject, generates image data indicating the subject, and the blocking unit blocks light in a predetermined wavelength band from incident light incident on the photographing unit. And the determining means determines whether or not the subject photographed by the photographing means is a predetermined subject, and when the control means determines that the subject is the predetermined subject, the blocking means Therefore, it is possible to provide a photographing device capable of photographing with a color close to an actual color.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, the light of the predetermined wavelength band is at least one of infrared light and ultraviolet light.

  According to the invention of claim 2, for an object that reflects at least one of infrared light and ultraviolet light, blocking of infrared light or ultraviolet light is prohibited corresponding to the object, so that it is close to the actual color. An imaging device capable of imaging with colors can be provided.

  According to a third aspect of the invention, in the first or second aspect of the invention, the predetermined subject is a subject that reflects at least one of infrared light and ultraviolet light.

  According to the invention of claim 3, the predetermined subject can be a subject that reflects at least one of infrared light and ultraviolet light.

  According to a fourth aspect of the invention, in the invention of any one of the first to third aspects, predetermined image processing is performed on the image data generated by the photographing unit in accordance with a determination result by the determination unit. The image processing apparatus further includes image processing means for performing the processing.

  According to the invention of claim 4, by performing image processing according to the determination result, it becomes possible to photograph with a color closer to the actual color.

  In order to achieve the above object, a fifth aspect of the present invention provides a determination step of determining whether or not a subject to be photographed by a photographing means for photographing a subject is a predetermined subject, and the subject is determined to be the predetermined subject by the determination means. A control step for controlling the blocking of the light of the predetermined wavelength band by the blocking means for blocking the light of the predetermined wavelength band out of the incident light incident on the imaging unit when it is determined that And having.

  Since the invention of claim 5 operates in the same manner as the invention of claim 1, the same effect as that of the invention of claim 1 can be obtained.

  According to the present invention, there is an effect that it is possible to provide a photographing apparatus and a photographing method capable of photographing with colors close to actual colors.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  First, with reference to FIG. 1, an external configuration of a digital camera 10 as a photographing apparatus according to the present embodiment will be described. A front surface of the digital camera 10 includes a lens 21 that is an optical member for forming a subject image, a viewfinder 20 that is used to determine the composition of the subject to be photographed, and a strobe 44. Further, on the upper surface of the digital camera 10, a release button (so-called shutter button) 56A that is pressed when shooting is performed, and a power switch 56B are provided.

  Note that the release button 56A of the digital camera 10 according to the present embodiment is pressed down to an intermediate position (hereinafter referred to as “half-pressed state”) and to a final pressed position beyond the intermediate position. A two-stage pressing operation of a state (hereinafter referred to as a “fully pressed state”) can be detected.

  In the digital camera 10, the brightness of the subject is measured by pressing the release button 56 </ b> A halfway, and an AE (Automatic Exposure) function is activated based on the measured brightness of the subject. After the shutter speed and the aperture state) are set, the AF (Auto Focus) function is activated to control the focus, and then exposure (photographing) is performed when the shutter button is fully pressed.

  On the other hand, on the back of the digital camera 10, the eyepiece of the finder 20 described above, the LCD 38 for displaying a photographed subject image, a menu screen, and the like, a photographing mode as a photographing mode, and a photographing mode are obtained. And a mode changeover switch 56C that is slid to be set to any one of the reproduction modes, which is a mode for reproducing and displaying the subject image displayed on the LCD 38.

  Further, on the back surface of the digital camera 10, a cross cursor button 56D and a forced light emission switch 56E that is pressed when setting the forced light emission mode, which is a mode for forcibly causing the flash 44 to emit light during photographing, are further provided. It has been.

  The cross-cursor button 56D includes four arrow keys that indicate four moving directions of up, down, left, and right in the display area of the LCD 38, and a determination key that exists in the center of the arrow keys. ing.

  Next, the configuration of the electrical system of the digital camera 10 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  The digital camera 10 includes an optical unit 22 that includes the lens 21 described above, a charge coupled device (hereinafter referred to as “CCD”) 24 that is an imaging device disposed behind the optical axis of the lens 21, and And an analog signal processing unit 26 that performs various analog signal processing on the input analog signal.

  The digital camera 10 also performs an analog / digital converter (hereinafter referred to as “ADC”) 28 that converts an input analog signal into digital data, and performs various digital signal processing on the input digital data. And a digital signal processing unit 30.

  The digital signal processing unit 30 has a built-in line buffer having a predetermined capacity, and also performs control to directly store the input digital data in a predetermined area of the memory 48 described later.

  The output terminal of the CCD 24 is connected to the input terminal of the analog signal processing unit 26, the output terminal of the analog signal processing unit 26 is connected to the input terminal of the ADC 28, and the output terminal of the ADC 28 is connected to the input terminal of the digital signal processing unit 30. . Accordingly, the analog signal indicating the subject image output from the CCD 24 is subjected to predetermined analog signal processing by the analog signal processing unit 26, converted into digital image data by the ADC 28, and then input to the digital signal processing unit 30.

  On the other hand, the digital camera 10 is obtained by photographing, an LCD interface 36 that generates a signal for displaying an object image, a menu screen, and the like on the LCD 38 and supplies the signal to the LCD 38, a CPU 40 that controls the operation of the entire digital camera 10. A memory 48 that stores digital image data and the like, and a memory interface 46 that controls access to the memory 48 are included.

  Further, the digital camera 10 includes an external memory interface 50 for enabling the portable memory card 52 to be accessed by the digital camera 10, and a compression / decompression processing circuit 54 for performing compression processing and decompression processing on the digital image data. It is configured to include.

  In the digital camera 10 of the present embodiment, any one or more of VRAM (Video RAM), SRAM or DRAM, and flash memory is used as the memory 48, and smart media (Smart Media (registered) is used as the memory card 52. Trademark)).

  In addition, the memory 48 stores a database indicating a subject and whether or not the subject reflects at least one of infrared light (wavelength 0.7 μm to 1 mm) and ultraviolet light (wavelength 10 to 400 nm). Yes. Examples of subjects that reflect at least one of infrared light and ultraviolet light include plants and insects.

  The digital signal processing unit 30, the LCD interface 36, the CPU 40, the memory interface 46, the external memory interface 50, and the compression / decompression processing circuit 54 are connected to each other via a system bus BUS. Therefore, the CPU 40 controls the operation of the digital signal processing unit 30, controls the operation of the compression / decompression processing circuit 54, displays various information via the LCD interface 36 to the LCD 38, and the memory interface 46 to the memory 48 and the memory card 52. And access via the external memory interface 50.

  On the other hand, the digital camera 10 includes a timing generator 32 that mainly generates a timing signal for driving the CCD 24 and supplies the timing signal to the CCD 24, and the driving of the CCD 24 is controlled by the CPU 40 via the timing generator 32. Further, direct control of the electronic shutter described later is performed by the timing generator 32.

  Further, the digital camera 10 is provided with a motor drive unit 34. The CPU 40 also drives the motor drive unit 34 by the CPU 40 to drive a focus adjustment motor, a zoom motor aperture drive motor, and a filter switching motor (not shown) provided in the optical unit 22. Controlled through.

  That is, the optical unit 22 according to the present embodiment includes a plurality of lenses and a plurality of filters, and is configured as a zoom lens that can change (magnify) the focal length. And a filter switching mechanism. The lens driving mechanism includes the focus adjustment motor, the zoom motor, and the aperture driving motor, and the filter switching mechanism includes the filter switching motor. These motors are controlled by the CPU 40, respectively. It is driven by the drive signal supplied from 34.

  The filter includes a filter that cuts infrared light (hereinafter referred to as an IR cut filter), a filter that cuts ultraviolet light (hereinafter referred to as a UV cut filter), and a filter that cuts infrared light and visible light. A filter (hereinafter referred to as an IRUV cut filter) is provided. The filter switching mechanism switches between these three filters and four states without a filter. Thus, the digital camera 10 according to the present embodiment is provided with a filter that blocks light in a predetermined wavelength band from incident light.

  Each filter described above does not completely block light in a predetermined wavelength band, but may block some light in that wavelength band. The type of filter is not limited to the above, and any filter that blocks light in a predetermined wavelength band may be used. For example, a filter for plants or an insect filter may be used.

  The release button 56A, the power switch 56B, the mode changeover switch 56C, the cross cursor button 56D, and the forced light emission switch 56E (generally referred to as “operation unit 56” in the figure) are connected to the CPU 40. The operation state with respect to these operation units 56 can be always grasped.

  In addition, the digital camera 10 includes a charging unit 42 that is interposed between the strobe 44 and the CPU 40 and charges power for causing the strobe 44 to emit light under the control of the CPU 40. Further, the strobe 44 is also connected to the CPU 40, and the light emission of the strobe 44 is controlled by the CPU 40.

  Next, an overall operation at the time of shooting of the digital camera 10 according to the present embodiment will be briefly described.

  First, the CCD 24 performs photographing through the optical unit 22 and sequentially outputs analog signals for R (red), G (green), and B (blue) indicating the subject image to the analog signal processing unit 26. The analog signal processing unit 26 performs analog signal processing such as correlated double sampling processing on the analog signal input from the CCD 24 and sequentially outputs the analog signal to the ADC 28.

  The ADC 28 converts the R, G, and B analog signals input from the analog signal processing unit 26 into 12-bit R, G, and B signals (digital image data) and sequentially outputs them to the digital signal processing unit 30. To do. The digital signal processing unit 30 accumulates digital image data sequentially input from the ADC 28 in a built-in line buffer and temporarily stores the digital image data directly in a predetermined area of the memory 48.

  Digital image data stored in a predetermined area of the memory 48 is read out by the digital signal processing unit 30 under the control of the CPU 40, and a white balance is adjusted by applying a digital gain according to a predetermined physical quantity. Processing and sharpness processing are performed to generate digital image data of predetermined bits, for example, 8 bits.

  The digital signal processing unit 30 performs YC signal processing on the generated digital image data of predetermined bits to generate a luminance signal Y and chroma signals Cr and Cb (hereinafter referred to as “YC signal”), and a YC signal. Are stored in an area different from the predetermined area of the memory 48.

  The LCD 38 is configured to display a moving image (through image) obtained by continuous photographing by the CCD 24 and can be used as a finder. When the LCD 38 is used as a finder, the LCD 38 is generated. The YC signals thus output are sequentially output to the LCD 38 via the LCD interface 36. As a result, a through image is displayed on the LCD 38. At this time, as will be described later, image recognition processing for the subject is performed.

  Here, when the release button 56A is half-pressed by the user, after the AE function is activated and the exposure state is set as described above, the AF function is activated and focus control is performed, and then the fully-pressed state is continued. In this case, the image processing described later is performed on the YC signal stored in the memory 48 at this time, and the image data subjected to the image processing is compressed by a compression / decompression processing circuit 54 in a predetermined compression format (the present embodiment). In this case, the data is compressed in the JPEG format) and then recorded on the memory card 52 via the external memory interface 50.

  Next, photographing processing according to the present embodiment will be described using the flowchart of FIG. The process described below is performed by the CPU 40 described above.

  First, in step 101, the through image is acquired. In the next step 102, the subject is recognized by performing image recognition processing such as pattern matching on the through image.

  Recognizing the subject and reflecting the infrared light by recognizing the recognized subject by referring to the database showing whether or not the recognized subject reflects at least one of infrared light and ultraviolet light. It is classified into four types: reflecting ultraviolet light, reflecting infrared light and ultraviolet light, and reflecting neither infrared light nor ultraviolet light.

  In the next step 103, a filter switching process described later is performed. This filter switching process is a process of controlling to prohibit blocking of light in a predetermined wavelength band by the filter when it is determined that the subject is a predetermined subject.

  If it is determined in step 104 that the release button has been pressed, image processing described later is performed in step 105. In this image processing, predetermined image processing is performed on the image data indicating the generated subject in accordance with the determination result. In the next step 106, the image processed image data is stored in the memory card 52, and the process ends.

  Next, the filter switching process (FIG. 3: S103) will be described using the flowchart of FIG. First, in step 201, it is determined whether or not the recognized subject reflects infrared light. If an affirmative determination is made in step 201, the infrared light flag IR is turned on in step 202. The infrared light flag IR indicates that the subject reflects infrared light when it is on, and indicates that the subject does not reflect infrared light when it is off. is there.

  On the other hand, if a negative determination is made in step 201, the infrared light flag IR is turned off in step 203.

  In the next step 204, it is determined whether or not the recognized subject reflects ultraviolet light. If an affirmative determination is made in step 204, the ultraviolet light flag UV is turned on in step 205. The ultraviolet light flag UV indicates that the subject is an object that reflects ultraviolet light when it is turned on, and indicates that the subject is an object that does not reflect ultraviolet light when it is turned off.

  In the next step 206, it is further determined whether or not the infrared light flag IR is on. If the determination in step 206 is affirmative, the object is a subject that reflects both infrared light and ultraviolet light. As a result, blocking of either infrared light or ultraviolet light can be prohibited.

  On the other hand, if a negative determination is made in step 206, the object reflects only ultraviolet light, so the filter is switched to the IR cut filter in step 208 and the process is terminated. Thereby, blocking of ultraviolet light can be prohibited.

  Returning to the determination process of step 204, if a negative determination is made in step 204, the ultraviolet light flag UV is turned off in step 209.

  In the next step 210, it is further determined whether or not the infrared light flag IR is on. If the determination in step 210 is affirmative, the object is an object that reflects infrared light, so that the process is terminated after switching to the UV cut filter in step 211. Thereby, blocking of infrared light can be prohibited.

  On the other hand, if a negative determination is made in step 210, the object reflects only ultraviolet light, so the filter is switched to the IR cut filter in step 212, and the process ends. Thereby, blocking of ultraviolet light can be prohibited.

  The filter is switched by the above processing. Next, the image processing (FIG. 3: S105) will be described using the flowchart of FIG. Note that each image processing used in the following description indicates predetermined image processing (white balance processing and color matrix processing) performed in accordance with the switched filter. The parameters and the like in these processes are used when the filter is used in the existing image processing.

  First, in step 301, it is determined whether or not the ultraviolet light flag UV is on. If an affirmative determination is made in step 301, it is determined in step 302 whether the infrared light flag IR is on. If an affirmative determination is made in step 302, image processing for the case of no filter is performed in step 303, and the processing is terminated.

  On the other hand, if a negative determination is made in step 302, image processing corresponding to IR cut is performed in step 304, and the process ends.

  Returning to the description of step 301, if a negative determination is made in step 301, it is determined in step 305 whether or not the infrared light flag IR is on. If an affirmative determination is made in step 305, UV cut-compatible image processing is performed in step 306, and the processing ends.

  On the other hand, if a negative determination is made in step 305, IRUV cut compatible image processing is performed in step 307, and the processing is terminated.

  In this way, by switching the filter according to the subject, it is possible to photograph with a color close to the actual color.

  The processing flow of each flowchart described above is an example, and the processing order may be changed, new steps may be added, or unnecessary steps may be deleted without departing from the scope of the present invention. Needless to say, you can.

It is a figure which shows the structure on the external appearance of the digital camera which concerns on this Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the structure of the electric system of the digital camera which concerns on this Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows an imaging | photography process. It is a flowchart which shows a filter switching process. It is a flowchart which shows an image process.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Digital camera 21 Lens 22 Optical unit 26 Analog signal processing part 30 Digital signal processing part 32 Timing generator 34 Motor drive part 40 CPU
46 Memory interface 48 Memory 54 Compression / decompression processing circuit

Claims (5)

Photographing means for photographing a subject and generating image data indicating the subject;
Blocking means for blocking light of a predetermined wavelength band out of incident light incident on the imaging unit;
Determining means for determining whether or not a subject photographed by the photographing means is a predetermined subject;
Control means for controlling the blocking of the light of the predetermined wavelength band by the blocking means when the determining means determines that the subject is the predetermined subject;
A photographing apparatus having   The imaging device according to claim 1, wherein the light in the predetermined wavelength band is at least one of infrared light and ultraviolet light.   The photographing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined subject is a subject that reflects at least one of infrared light and ultraviolet light.   The imaging according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising an image processing unit that performs predetermined image processing on the image data generated by the imaging unit in accordance with a determination result by the determination unit. apparatus. A determination step of determining whether or not the subject photographed by the photographing means for photographing the subject is a predetermined subject;
When the determination unit determines that the subject is the predetermined subject, light of the predetermined wavelength band by a blocking unit that blocks light of a predetermined wavelength band out of incident light incident on the photographing unit. A control stage for controlling so as to prohibit the interruption of
A photographing method comprising:

Images